Thanks for all the great comments. I appreciate it. I had a couple of wood finish screw-ups and pretty much decided to stick with the acrylics, when I came across this wood on eBay. I bought a batch and turned one of the blanks for this pen. I had some issues with the finish, again, and after sanding and refinishing, realized that it wouldn't fit the components anymore. So, I started over, paying close attention to the finish with every step and realized that the problem I was having was with the final polish. Once I resolved that, the pen came out much better.
I guess the lesson is that you can't give up, you have to systematically diagnose and adapt.